Thank you so much.
Good morning, colleagues.
It is November 16th, 2020. The council briefing meeting will come to order.
The time is 9.32 a.m.
Before the clerk calls the roll, I wanted to announce that both council members Juarez and Morales are feeling under the weather this morning and will not be able to join us during council briefing.
I do hope that they feel better in time for full council, but if they do not, then we will be prepared request that they both be excused from this afternoon's full council meeting as well.
With that being said, will the clerk please call the roll?
Council Member Lewis.
Present.
Council Member Mosqueda.
Present.
Council Member Peterson.
Here.
Council Member Sawant.
Here.
Council Member Strauss.
Present.
Council Member Herbold.
Here.
Council President Gonzalez.
Here.
Seven, present.
Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.
For that, colleagues, over the last week, we had a proclamation related to the Open Public Meetings Act reissued by Governor Inslee and the state legislature that allows us to continue to have electronic meetings and, in fact, is now mandated that we continue to have remote meetings.
And so I'm going to go ahead and go through the steps of suspending our council rules to allow us to continue to electronically participate during council briefing meetings in order to be consistent with that proclamation that was just recently extended by Governor Inslee.
So to continue participating remotely, as I mentioned, I am going to move to suspend the council rules through December 7th, 2020. to allow this meeting to occur while participating through electronic means.
If there is no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow electronic participation at council briefing meetings through December 7th, 2020. Hearing no objection, the council rules are suspended and council briefing meetings will be held with council members participating electronically through at least December 7th of 2020. Approval of the minutes.
If there's no objection, the minutes of November 9th, 2020 will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.
President's report.
Colleagues, I'm going to dispense with my president reports this morning and just have us dive right on into a preview of today's city council actions, council and regional committees.
and I'm gonna call on council members as established by this week's rotating roll call for city council meetings.
That order, again, is Council Member Lewis.
And then if somebody has Council Member Morales's report, they're welcome to give it at the time that I call on that council member.
But Council Member Lewis, same is true for Council Member Juarez's report as well.
So it'll be Council Member Lewis, Mosqueda, Peterson, Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Councilmember Silva?
Council Members Peterson and Herbold in putting forward a $20 increase in the vehicle license fee under the Seattle Transportation Benefit District in order to make a enlarged commitment for much-needed bridge maintenance as laid out in a recent auditor's report indicating the state and condition of Seattle's bridges and our historic underinvestment in the maintenance of this critical infrastructure.
The City of Seattle is a city of hills and waterways stitched together by networks of bridges.
District 7 is no exception to that and has its own share of bridges, including two that are going to need sustained maintenance in the future, the Ballard Bridge and the Magnolia Bridge.
I look forward to working with everyone here in this last week and a half of the budget process to see if we can continue to increase that commitment as outlined in the auditor report for bridge maintenance.
And would note that it's especially critical for our multimodal bridges that are going to be essential for the future of bus transportation in the city to make sure all neighborhoods have access to bus of a frequency of 15 minutes or faster.
With that, Madam Chair, I don't have, or Madam President, I don't have any additional updates.
Looking forward to discussing the form Cs that my office submitted at the appropriate times this coming budget meeting later in the week.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Lewis.
Any comments or questions on that report?
Okay, hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear now from Council Member Mosqueda, and then we'll hear from Council Member Peterson.
Thank you very much, Madam President, and good morning, everyone.
Also acknowledge the new announcement that came from Governor Inslee over the weekend.
Colleagues, this is something that we talked about last week and the headlines across the country are talking about the need to stay home, to stay healthy.
Please do take that to heart as you cancel any holiday plans for the upcoming two to four weeks.
I know it's hard.
I want our baby to be able to see their grandparents and You know, these are the times that we're living in in order to make sure that there is another time for folks to be able to see their loved ones.
It's imperative that we all stay home so that we can slow the transmission of this disease.
Governor Inslee yesterday posted an alert that said that yesterday was the most dangerous day in Washington's 100 year history as it relates to public health.
And I appreciate the governor issuing the proclamation and the and the demand for us to take these numbers to heart, not only to wear our masks and socially distance as we've heard, but to recognize that the places where transmission is happening is within our homes.
And then when we go to places like restaurants or out to eat and interact with the general community, we're risking spreading transmission to the general population.
So I know this is a hard time.
My sister has talked about how going to the gym is her only outlet for mental health right now.
And it's a really challenging time.
And I'm hoping that everybody recognizes that we're in the same boat and does everything that we can to maintain the public's health.
We have done that as a council.
We recognize that the complications of COVID and the economic downturn, we're gonna have a dramatic impact, not just on our health as individuals, but the financial health for small businesses, especially restaurants, especially our small businesses and bars and restaurants.
retail folks, we know that this is an extremely hard time.
We stepped up and we helped to ensure that there was additional support through the Jumpstart COVID relief plan earlier this summer.
We recognized that this was going to hit renters the hardest, renters most likely to be people of color, women, members of the LGBTQ community.
Given that over half of our population is renters in the city, wanting to not only ensure that there was rental assistance, but there was eviction prevention dollars and to help the small landlords across our city as well who we know.
In some cases are also reliant on those rental payments to make sure that their own mortgage is paid.
We did that through the jumpstart COVID relief package this summer.
We stepped up by providing assistance in food assistance and additional security so that folks would have a less of a likelihood of going hungry.
And we know prior to COVID one out of every four kiddos was food and in secure in this area and we stepped up to provide food assistance.
As you'll remember, that $86 million package was initially vetoed.
We came back with a $58 million piece that we then negotiated down because we wanted to make sure that something at least got passed and was not vetoed.
And we appreciate all of the calls that we've continued to receive for additional assistance for small businesses, for rental assistance, for folks who need food assistance, and a lot of that is being addressed in this budget.
And I think because we have been able, with your support and with the success of all of your thoughtful approach to this budget, we've now been able to secure almost around 40 million, about $38 million in our emergency reserve funds.
And we don't have a ton of indication that there's going to be swift action from a divided Congress at this point.
So colleagues, I'm just flagging for you all that as this recession worsens and our public health numbers continue to skyrocket, this compounded with the highest rates of unemployment that our city and state have seen in history, we will probably need to continue to make sure that there is additional emergency assistance available.
And that is exactly why we have We have stepped up to provide about $40 million worth of reserves in case that those federal dollars don't come through and we continue to see a worsening economic and health concerns.
So I just want to provide that context as we head into this tough time.
to make sure that there is additional support for small businesses, those who are facing unemployment, folks who are facing potential eviction and not able to pay their rent, people who are concerned about putting food on their table.
We are going to continue to work to make sure that we are stepping up.
and we are looking forward to this next administration at the federal level to be able to support our city.
Appreciate all the work that's happening to get the dollars out the door through the Mayor Durkin's administration and through all of your support that we have pulled together and we'd offer this support to our community, but much more is needed.
As we think about the upcoming budget, I want to note there is two meetings this week for the Budget Committee.
The Wednesday and Thursday meetings start at 9.30 a.m.
public comment is going to be accepted for at least the first hour of those meetings.
That public comment period will sign up, will start at 7.30 in the morning.
We will have the chance to go over the form Cs, the amendments that each council member has submitted.
Last Tuesday, we went over the balancing package that was developed by all of your input and lifting up community priorities.
We offered the draft Council's balancing package for your review, and we really appreciate all the feedback we've received and all of the form Cs that you have submitted.
Colleagues, we've received over 50 form Cs, and in our effort to try to make sure that as many amendments were to be included as possible in a streamlined discussion, we are looking forward to compiling a series of those amendments in a consent amendment package for your consideration on Wednesday.
If there's any item that you would wish to pull out for further discussion or consideration, It will always be welcome to do that, but this is our attempt to help to make sure that a number of priorities that were listed in form Cs are able to balance if they were able to go forward with your approval.
That is in addition to any additional amendments that folks would want to consider for the full committee's consideration.
If they're not in the consent package or if you'd like to pull any items out, we will definitely do that in addition to the consent amendment package that we are putting together for your consideration.
We will be taking a final vote on November 23rd.
Again, as a reminder, we have a meeting that morning and then full council in the afternoon.
I'm looking forward to having a conversation in the next two days here about the amendments for your consideration as part of the consent amendment package and all of the other items that the council members wish to bring forward.
We also do not have any items from the finance and housing committee on today's full council agenda.
And then lastly, we have some news.
You just received an email from me.
This is big news that we wanna share with you and share with the public.
We are very excited for Erin House.
This is her last week before she heads on parental leave.
We are extremely excited for her to welcome a new baby in the next week or so here.
And would like to invite all of you from the legislative department to pop in to a drop in open house for Erin House.
We will have that around 1.30 today.
If you'd like to come and wish her well, any bits of advice that you might have for entering into this new adventure of parenthood, I know that those are welcome.
She's going to take six months between our city leave and the state's family and medical leave.
And I think it's just a tremendous opportunity for us to both appreciate the work that she did and wish her luck on her next adventure.
I also want to note that we will be welcoming into our team a new person to be an interim policy manager as Erin takes her six month leave.
This is Andrew Grant Houston.
Many of you may know them.
He is a strong urbanist policy guru, and we're really excited to be able to have Andrew as part of our team.
Currently, he works as an architect.
He's the head of design and founder of the architect firm House Cosmopolitan, has extensive work in land use, housing, zoning, and everything urbanist related.
Really, I think it's going to be a tremendous addition to our team, and I want to thank Andrew for their time in advance.
We will have an opportunity to welcome Andrew and our new intern as well, Lori.
We'll set up some time for that after the budget deliberations are done.
So again, today, if you're able to pop in, 1.30 is our time for an open house for Erin House as we send her on her way.
Madam President, I do have an update from Council Member Juarez as well, if you'd like me to read that at this moment.
Thank you very much.
Councilmember Juarez?
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
This morning, we also have an update from Parks.
This morning, Council Member Juarez's office will be sending out a Parks weekly COVID programmatic update, as they do every week.
And as it relates to the Office of the Waterfront and the Pier 58 ongoing issues, here is a quick update.
Last week, the Office of the Waterfront completed removal of the concrete walkway north of the Southern Terrace and removed approximately 10,000 square feet of timber decking.
In the southwest corner of the park next week, the contractor will mobilize additional equipment to compile to complete the pile extraction and will continue with removing the southern concrete ramp.
with saw cutting from the seawall side.
In Native committees, an update from Council Member Juarez, last week the National Conference of American Indians, NCAI, passed the Tribal Citizenship Protection Resolution and a Police Task Force Resolution recognizing the indigenous human and civil rights to belong free, recognizing the indigenous peoples have a right to human and civil rights and that they should be free of discrimination, affirming the inherent tribal sovereign right to decide who belongs and creating an NCAI task force to monitor external attacks on tribal citizenship.
These are each first in the NCAI's 76 year existence.
This week, November 20th and 21st, the Seattle Indian Health Board will be celebrating their 50th anniversary with online virtual event titled Indigenous Peoples Festival.
Council Member Juarez is honored to be interviewed this year at the event along with Esther Lucero, Colleen Echo-Hawk, Abigail Echo-Hawk, Robin Little Wing-Sigo, and to view the full list of presenters and performers, please visit the Seattle Indian Health Board website.
Finally, in the week ahead, on November 19th, Thursday, November 19th, there is a Sound Transit Board of Directors meeting scheduled for the afternoon.
Councilmember Juarez is on standby to attend, depending on how long the budget meeting is run that day.
And she looks forward to participating in the remaining Budget Committee meetings this week and next.
Thank you, Council President.
Thank you so much, Councilmember Mosqueda.
Any comments or questions on both of those reports?
Okay, hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear from Councilmember Peterson and then Councilmember Sawant.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Thank you, Council President.
Hello, colleagues.
Special thanks to our budget chair for her leadership and central staff on this complex and rapid process that is our budget process.
I just want to thank everybody who's been working so hard on this and all the It was hard for us to scramble and craft those, but it's even harder to sort of digest them and organize them and make sense and deal with the Rubik's Cube that is our budget.
So thanks, Council Member Esqueda and central staff who's hopefully listening in.
After the 2021 budget is adopted, our Transportation and Utilities Committee will resume its meeting starting on Wednesday, December 2nd.
We're also planning for our final meeting of the year on Wednesday, December 16th.
So we'll do both December 2nd and December 16th.
The Transportation Utilities Committee has no items on today's full council agenda, but as Council Member Lewis mentioned, Council Members Herbold, Lewis, and I have a transportation-related item on today's introduction and referral calendar for consideration by the Budget Committee this week, and that's Council Bill 119951 regarding vehicle license fees.
In addition, there will be a companion budget form C that would govern how to prioritize the use of those funds generated by that council bill.
And the budget form C, of course, would apply just to next year.
Council Bill 119951. You can find more information on my website, my blog.
Central staff is also available to answer questions from the council members.
I'll quickly piece together the past discussions and urgent needs that culminated in this budget legislation.
We've been discussing for months the need for more bridge maintenance throughout our city ever since the West Seattle High Bridge had to be closed for years due to cracking.
and our city auditor started work on the citywide bridge assessment, which we all received several weeks ago.
We have also been discussing for months the need to overturn initiative 976 because the vehicle license fees are vital to fund transportation projects and programs as authorized by state law, specifically RCW 36.73.015.
Now, while Seattle residents currently pay an annual vehicle license fee of $80, it could drop to only $20 next year.
So this legislation would have it essentially drop from $80 to $40 so that we can do all we can for transportation next year.
The state law permits the council councilmanically to enact that additional $20 VLF.
As we await a vaccine for COVID and transit ridership to recover after plummeting this year during the pandemic, we have the urgent need also to increase the maintenance of our bridge infrastructure.
The budget form C that accompanies the council bill will enable us to make a larger down payment toward this infrastructure priority, and to do so in a way that serves multiple modes of transportation and supports our frequent transit network.
This would add to what the chair's balancing package was also able to achieve.
So despite the sharp increase in transit ridership, including bus ridership this year due to the pandemic, I am optimistic.
I know we all are about the future and we want to make sure our economy recovers and transit ridership along with it.
While this bill and the budget form C are focused on generating an additional $3.6 million more for bridge maintenance in 2021, there are many more dollars available for transit service hours for 2021 due to the ample reserves left over from the expiring STBD funding.
As part of future transportation and utilities committee meetings, We will look forward to working with SDOT, the Transit Advisory Board, the Move Seattle Levy Oversight Committee, and other stakeholders to discuss how to program those remaining STBD funds that are already focused and authorized for transit.
Speaking of bridges, This week, I will venture inside the West Seattle Bridge to see the most recent stabilization solutions installed by our Seattle Department of Transportation and their engineers and contractors.
Tonight, the mayor is having a, attending another town hall for the West Seattle Bridge as well.
I want to thank SDOT for visiting our council briefing last week to bring everyone up to date on efforts to stabilize the bridge, as well as options to repair or replace the high bridge so that we can restore it in a timely and cost-effective manner that prioritizes safety.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.
Are there any comments or questions on that report?
Hearing none, thanks again for that report.
And next up is Council Member Sawant, followed by Council Member Strauss.
Thank you, President Gonzalez.
Good morning, everyone.
There are no items on today's City Council agenda from the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee.
There is a regularly scheduled meeting of the committee for Tuesday, the 24th, which is one week from tomorrow, which would be the last regularly scheduled meeting of the committee in 2020. It is the intention of my office to hold a quick committee meeting on that date to hear and approve renters commission appointments.
And this is the date that committee meetings are often canceled because it's during Thanksgiving week.
So, and it's the day after the final budget vote.
So if committee members are not going to be available, I would really appeal to you to let my office know so that we can make alternate arrangements if that date does not work for committee members.
Just on the question of CARTABS revenues, I would just say one thing.
Of course, needless to say, I'm really happy that voters defeated Tim Eyman's yet another attempt to denude the city, county, and state of much needed revenues as has been done by the right wing for decades.
But I also hope the council, rather than city council, rather than pushing for deeply regressive taxes, from car tabs that can raise only $3.6 million will instead support the proposal from my office and the people's budget movement to increase the Amazon tax so that we can fund all $93.6 million that have been reduced from the 2020 proposed budget.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Sawant.
Any comments or questions on that report?
Hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear from Council Member Strauss, and then we will hear from Council Member Herbold.
Good morning.
Thank you, Council President.
Thank you, colleagues.
There are no items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction and referral calendar.
There is one item from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's agenda, which is a public hearing on CB 119907, extending a moratorium on development of mobile home park sites while permanent regulations are created.
The council has adopted or extended this moratorium three times before to protect the two remaining mobile home parks in the city.
This legislation would again extend that moratorium for six months.
The required public hearing is occurring at full council because of the budget proceedings as this would typically occur in committee.
And the vote is scheduled for Monday, November 30th after the budget is complete.
Again, due to timing of the expiration of this moratorium and ensuring that we don't have a lapse.
I am optimistic that this will be the final time that we have to adopt a temporary extension as my office has been working for several months with Councilmember Juarez and central staff to develop a permanent regulation to be considered next year.
Councilmember Juarez has been deeply engaged in this process and we all as a city will benefit from her perspective as a lawyer and her dedication to this legislation, Halcyon residents and all District 5 residents.
So I can't thank Councilmember Juarez enough.
Next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee will be on December 9th, as the November 25th meeting will be canceled.
Last week, I was able to attend the King County Affordable Housing Subcommittee, which we were able to pass a shared goals on shared framework on new revenue on how we can build more housing throughout King County.
Here in District 6 last week, I spent my District 6 resident meetings speaking with local business owners and spoke to several business owners in Ballard and other parts of District 6. On Thursday, I joined the Ballard District Council's virtual meeting to discuss public safety and answered questions submitted by residents.
If you'd like to view that discussion, it is still on the Ballard District Council's YouTube website.
My staff continues to help District 6 residents find solutions to the issues they are experiencing.
And I wanna thank all of the residents of District 6 who've taken their time to discuss with me and my staff the issues and having us help them get to the solutions that they need.
Every week I host district meetings with District 6 residents by phone and this week's calls will take place.
on Tuesday from 2 p.m.
to 7 p.m.
If you'd like to speak with me, please reach out to me via the web forum on my website.
Thank you, Council President.
Thank you, colleagues.
That is my report.
Thank you, Councilmember Strauss, for that report.
Are there any comments or questions on that report?
Hearing none, we'll go ahead and go down the line and hear now from Councilmember And then I will conclude this portion of the agenda.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good to see everybody today.
Thank you for the time to go through the items this week.
I have no items from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.
on either the full council agenda nor on the information and referral calendar, but I do have, I am a co-sponsor to Council Member Peterson's legislation that states the council's intention to direct additional vehicle license proceeds for at least 2021 to fund maintenance activities on Seattle bridges that support high-capacity transit or multiple modes of travel.
I just want to speak a little bit to my interest.
If it's not completely obvious, we all know what has happened with the West Seattle Bridge, and we know that One of the issues that SDOT has raised as it relates to the question of a repair or a replacement of the bridge, as one of the factors that is weighing into their thinking about those two choices, is their recognition that a repair for the West Seattle Bridge, although it's only estimated to be about $47 million, the cost of the annual maintenance is $500,000.
And that's about double the anticipated maintenance costs of a brand new bridge, which would cost about 400M dollars.
So for me, that's a bit of a challenge to really look at the issues associated with the costs and maintaining our existing structures.
I don't think that we can go out and buy new things because we are trying to avoid higher annual maintenance costs of the things that we currently own.
So it's really, for me, made me really take a look at our investment policies and our asset management responsibilities and really ask ourselves how we want to address the serious recommendations of the city auditor.
I think we do audits because we want the city auditor's expert advice And in this case, we've received it, and I think we would be remiss in not striving to implement the recommendations of the city auditor.
Again, we are, excuse me, we are looking at ensuring that the funding from the VLF in this, in this, in this, is very focused on the kinds of bridges that don't just move cars, but that are actually part of a frequent transit network of buses that are using our bridges in a way that they would not be able to accept new funds for additional service if we're not doing more to maintain those bridges.
So I really think as a big advocate for adding service to our buses, or adding funds for service to our new buses, that we actually have to look at the infrastructure that they rely on.
We can't just look at one side of the equation.
As it relates to upcoming items for the Public Safety and Human Services Committee, I do not have a meeting this week nor next week.
My first meeting in some time will be December 8th.
Just as it relates to some of what we've already talked about related to the governor's announcement and new restrictions, I know we are all very aware of these new restrictions to contain coronavirus and their statewide restrictions.
But as it relates specifically to King County, the numbers have doubled in the last two weeks.
We have significantly more cases now than we did during either of the earlier waves.
And the number of people in Seattle currently in the hospital with COVID-19 has increased quickly over the last week and is the highest it's been since April 2020. Again, we have to change our behavior, keep ourselves and keep one another safe.
Indoor gatherings with people outside of the household are prohibited unless everyone involved meets strict quarantine and testing requirements.
I know that's very difficult, particularly over the holidays.
But again, this is a way that we can show our love and our care for those around us.
Only outdoor visits are allowed at long-term care facilities.
Again, it's very heartbreaking to think of not being able to visit our elderly family members and friends.
But again, these are really important restrictions that are serving the public interest.
It's heartbreaking and difficult to think that we're returning to the time we were in over the spring.
But this is really something that COVID fatigue or not, we need to really take seriously.
Bars and restaurants are closed for indoor service and outdoor service is limited to groups of five.
Takeout can continue.
And again, I recognize how difficult this is for our small business owners and the workers in the service industry, particularly at this time when it felt like we could see the light at the end of the tunnel of being able to get back to business as usual.
And then, of course, the retail and grocery stores restriction of 25% capacity.
These restrictions begin tonight and last until December 14th.
The exception is the, of course, the restaurant and bar restrictions.
They begin, I believe, on Wednesday.
The restrictions have been reported widely in the media, and given that they sometimes change, encourage folks to check your usual media outlets to learn more.
These all have real impacts on Thanksgiving plans, so I really encourage everybody who celebrates Thanksgiving to plan a small celebration with the people you live with, for those of you who live with people, and for those of you on your own, I really encourage you to Reach out to family, friends, and try to organize virtual celebrations.
We saw in the Seattle Times today, there was a letter signed by 500 King County nurses urging us all to take these steps to keep them, their patients, and all of our neighbors safe.
Again, wear a mask when you're in public, particularly indoors.
Stay six feet from others outside of your household.
Avoid gatherings, especially inside.
Reduce travel.
and get tested right away if you have COVID-19 symptoms or were in close contact with somebody who has.
My weekly shout out to the Seattle Fire Department and the number of COVID tests administered at their four sites.
It's now nearly 364,000 COVID-19 tests administered at four sites throughout the city, dating back to June 5th.
quick update from the Human Services Department.
The Human Services Department is hosting two community forums for the new Safe and Thriving Communities Division this week.
You may recall that we learned during the budget process when we had a presentation from HSD that they are creating a new Safe and Thriving Communities Division that will house many of the, house the funds in order to support the investments associated with community safety.
This new division is intended to respond to community requests for the city to reduce funding for the police department and reinvest in community building efforts using nearly 22 million in annual investments.
The new safe and thriving communities division consolidates human services existing funding for community safety and prepares HSD to administer new community safety funding.
Through the community forums, participants will learn about options to direct the work of the new division and provide feedback on a hiring process for a new division director and a community structure that shares responsibility for decisions and outcomes.
The goal of the division is that HSD will fund community so that all people living in Seattle are free from violence.
For folks interested in participating in these forums, I think they had their first one last Friday.
You can contact Terry Croft at terry.croft at Seattle.gov.
And that's Terry spelled T-E-R-R-I.
Items coming up this week.
This week, the West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force will be meeting on Thursday afternoon with the mayor.
And just had a really want to give a shout out to SDOT on the opportunity that I had on Friday.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, Friday.
to tour the West Seattle Bridge, not just the top of it, but inside of it, was very, very helpful for me to be able to visualize the work that they've been doing during the stabilization period, as well as what a full repair might look like, as well, should the mayor choose that direction or that pathway.
So yeah, again, the task force is meeting on Thursday.
I think there's a town hall that the mayor is doing tonight and just anticipating us moving closer to a decision pathway from the mayor.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Herbold.
Are there any questions or comments on that report?
Okay, hearing none, just really quickly, I'll go ahead and give my report.
There is nothing from the Governance and Education Committees on today's introduction referral calendar, and there are no items on the full council agenda from my committee either.
Again, as a reminder, there is no committee meeting for the Governance and Education Committee for the month of November.
We do hope to have our monthly meeting in December.
And really quickly in terms of regional committee work, there is a meeting of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority Governing Committee this Thursday, November 19th at 10 a.m.
That does unfortunately conflict with the scheduled select budget committee that is slated to begin at 9.30 in the morning on the same day.
So we'll be sort of Asking to be excused from the governing committee meeting in order to attend the budget committee.
There are fortunately no action items on the agenda for the governing committee at the King County Regional Homeless Authority.
There will, however, for the benefit of the public, be a present presentation, providing an update to the search process for the CEO that will be responsible for overseeing the work of the regional homelessness authority.
So, really important update.
Hope members of the public are able to.
sign into that.
Unfortunately, due to the conflict between committees, I will not be able to attend this week's meeting, but looking forward to getting a report back from my staff on the presentation and any issues that might come up there.
Also, do want to, consistent with what Council Member Herbal just said, acknowledge the difficulties of another set of restrictions that are Going to be rolled out this week.
I of course think that it's important for us to acknowledge that there are science public health based reasons for why these restrictions need to be in place that that Those reasons however don't mitigate the real impact that that this will have on our economy and on our workers and on our small businesses particularly in the Restaurant industry throughout the city of Seattle.
So for me, it continues to be rather rather personal.
My husband is a service worker in the restaurant industry as are most of our closest friends and his restaurant will be.
closing down effective Tuesday, consistent with the governor's mandate.
So we will once again be facing unemployment in our own households.
And so I understand from a very personal place how impactful this decision is, but it's important for us to make sure that we keep each other safe by following the governor's new restrictions.
So, we will we will be joining my office along with customer Morales his office and I believe customer mosquitoes office was also invited.
We will be joining an emergency small business advisory council meeting this afternoon immediately after the conclusion of our full council meeting to talk to.
Members of our small business community throughout the city of Seattle about what we might be able to continue to do to support small businesses, specifically restaurants throughout the city of Seattle.
who are continuing to face the difficulties, the real difficulties and impact of the ongoing need for these restrictions.
There will also be staff from the governor's office available during that meeting this afternoon to talk about some of the economic packages and programs that they announced yesterday.
So looking forward to being able to to join that emergency meeting this afternoon and to have an opportunity to listen and learn and identify ways that we may be able to, as a city council, support the ongoing needs of small businesses throughout the city of Seattle as it relates to the impact of these restrictions.
So I'm looking forward to that and looking forward to engaging in that work with Council Member Morales as well, who does plan on, I believe, attending that particular meeting.
The only other thing that I will say on behalf of Council Member Morales is that she wanted me to mention that she does not have anything from her committee on this afternoon's agenda either.
And with the exception of the governor's meeting at 2.30 p.m.
to discuss small business impacts, she has nothing else to report out for the benefit of the public and for our colleagues.
So that is all I have.
Happy to take any questions or hear any additional comments for the good of the order.
Alright, hearing none uh that does conclude our agenda for this morning's council briefing.
We don't have anything else um slated for this morning.
Again, this afternoon's 2 o'clock PM, a full council meeting is a very short one.
Um we'll have public comment for 20 minutes up to 20 minutes.
Um we will then have the public hearing as mentioned by close out our full council.
I expect that our full council meeting will not be very long this afternoon as we continue to focus and channel all of our work into the Select Budget Committee meetings that are scheduled for later this week and early next week.
That being said, we are adjourned and I look forward to seeing all of you at two o'clock.
Thank you.